The Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging celebrated its 50th anniversary with a symposium and awards reception on Thursday, January 15, 2026, at Roosevelt House in New York. The theme, Deep Roots and New Branches, represented Brookdale’s work from its earliest days, under founder Rose Dobrof, to the present. We were delighted to welcome alumni and friends who filled the auditorium and the overflow room. Highlights:
After a welcome by Hunter College President Nancy Cantor, Brookdale’s executive director, Ruth Finkelstein, introduced a three-part symposium (full video below).
Economic security across the life course
Robert Wolf, a pioneer in the field of elder law and among the first attorneys to work at the Sadin Institute on Law, and christian gonzález-rivera, of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Program and Brookdale, discussed older adults’ access to Social Security benefits and Brookdale’s early work to improve that access.
Aging and social networks
Toni C. Antonucci (Hunter ’69), a prominent gerontologist at the University of Michigan, and Jasmine Manalel, a research scientist at Brookdale, talked about their respective research on social networks, connected to Rose Dobrof’s vision for aging.
Elders and the arts
Anne Basting, founder of TimeSlips.org, which trains caregivers to unlock the meaning and joy in elder care through creativity, and Caryn Campbell, executive director of the Misty Copeland Foundation, discussed their different visions of how the arts play a critical role in aging.
At the reception, introduced by Abby Levy, chair of the Hunter College Foundation, Nora OBrien-Suric, Brookdale alumna and president of the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York, led a ceremony honoring leaders in the field (no video available):
We wish to thank the Hunter College Office of Institutional Advancement, the Hunter College Office of Communications and Marketing, and the staff at Roosevelt House for their generous assistance with the event.
